Thursday, May 11, 2006

U.S. Medicine reports in this article that Nashville's historically black Meharry Medical College has joined forces with the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) and has also launched a Hispanic school.

"NHMA announced a new partnership with Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., the largest private, comprehensive historically black institution for educating health professionals and scientists in the U.S."

"Meharry's president John Maupin Jr., DDS, spoke at the conference on the importance of training Hispanic medical students. 'I felt today is a different day,' he said when describing how he approached Meharry's board to see about allowing Hispanic students to apply. 'I felt we needed to bring our training beyond African Americans to individuals of color and poor communities, and disadvantaged backgrounds beyond race.'"

"During the conference, Dr. Maupin and Dr. Rios signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to increase the number of Hispanic students, and pursue a mentoring program. 'We ought to be able to increase the opportunities for students,' he said. 'Partnering can draw more funding, [too].' Dr. Rios said the MoU is important and historic. 'We don't have a board of trustees like historically black colleges and to take the lead and help us is big, to improve the health of Latinos and black Americans,' she said. 'We need to fight for them and they need to fight for us.' Dr. Maupin added that a distinct school for Hispanic students was established at Meharry this year."